smugblog: the API

lildude just announced over on dgrin that his PHP wrapper, phpSmug, has been released.

Like the Java kit, this is a great entry for the API contest in its own right, but don’t be surprised if other entrants build off of it.

We’re running a contest this month where you can win an iPhone (or something of comparable value, should you live in a non-iPhone territory or not want one).

Don’t forget that API developers get lifetime free Pro accounts, so it’s free to play.

Riyad Kalla sends word that his Java API for SmugMug is complete and available for everyone to use. Very cool!

Just a quick note to let everyone know that v1.2.1 is out in beta form and v1.2.0 has been marked as stable.

Enjoy!

As supplements to this blog and the message forum we already have, we’ve added two new email mailing lists:

• api-announce - for announcements from SmugMug only, no discussion
• api-discussion - for ongoing discussion of the API, how to use it, etc

If those sound like they’re right up your alley - go subscribe!

Seems like we nailed pretty much every bug in the 1.1.1 release, so that’s now the GA release and we’re moving on. 1.2.0 is the new beta release and contains a bunch of great stuff:

• New reponse formats: JSON and serialized PHP
• Updated REST and XML-RPC response formats to closely match JSON and PHP

1.2.0 is a much more solid, unified approach to the API and should provide a great basis for all of the new features we’re working on with the API. None of the methods themselves have changed, so it should be fairly easy to test and update your applications, but the response formats are quite different. We made lots of mistakes with the first few versions of the API and now we’re correcting them thanks to your input.

Please test it out, let us know what works and doesn’t, and more importantly, what you like and don’t like about it. We’re hoping to *quickly* declare this as release quality so we can dump a bunch of new features on you for v1.2.1.

We just released a significant bugfix update to our beta version, v1.1.1. Here are the changes:

• Private galleries are displayed in smugmug.users.getTree if you’re the owner and logged in
• smugmug.albums.getInfo has recent features and fields listed, such as CanRank, ProofDays, Backprinting, WatermarkID, and PasswordHint
• All known bugs with adding/renaming/deleting/getting Categories and SubCategories have been fixed
• The login functions now return an entirely new SessionID each time they’re called, rather than reusing an existing one, making handling multiple accounts much easier.
• smugmug.images.getStats no longer erroneously reports ‘invalid user’
• smugmug.users.getTree works for XML-RPC
• Uploading via xmladd.mg or xmlrawadd.mg now prefers the stated SessionID, if given, over the cookie, just like all the other methods.

There may be a few more minor fixes that I’m overlooking, too. I believe we fixed all known bugs this time around.

Assuming this release proves solid, we’ll declare it the release version in the next few days and move on.

The first release of the next beta version is already nearly complete, and it lays the groundwork for a solid new base, including JSON and serialized PHP. Expect it in the next day or two - look here for more info. Oh, and I believe we’re not going to deprecate XML-RPC after all, but the responses will get more verbose in the next release to closely match REST, JSON, and PHP responses.

Please discuss this over on the dgrin API forum if there are issues or questions.

Big huge thanks to devbobo for collecting all the bugs and pushing me to fix them.

This wouldn’t happen for a long time, but we’re considering deprecating XML-RPC, and here’s why:

• The majority of new applications using the API are using REST rather than XML-RPC.
• REST is far easier to develop for and debug - you just use any web browser.
• REST responses are more human-readable, making it easier to develop
• Maintaining XML-RPC takes a lot more time and energy than REST
• We’d rather spend those resources on things like JSON

But we’re not gonna make any decisions or do anything until we get feedback from our API customers. So please, let us know if XML-RPC development is important to you and why.

After far too long, we’ve released an update to v1.1.1, our current beta release, that fixes some bugs and adds some functionality. I’m hoping we can wrap this one up, flag it as ‘released’ rather than beta, and move on.

This release is thanks to devbobo and all his hard work. He’s now SmugMug’s official API guru, so see him if you want something fixed, changed, or added to the API. This puts us one huge step closer to real API support. If this goes well, you can count on seeing a lot more action in this arena.

Here’s what’s new:

• Documentation is now Wiki’d at the SmugMug Wiki. This means you can now help out with documentation! v1.1.0 isn’t there yet, but I’m working on it. v1.1.1 is. This means the docs in the old location are now out of date. I’ll be removing them as soon as v1.1.0 is over there completely.
• Two new binary upload methods: HTTP PUT and RAW HTTP POST
• New endpoints for the API include the version in the URL, so you can mix-and-match versions if you run into bugs or want to use functionality from different versions. The old endpoints still work, but are now deprecated. This does mean in future versions of the API, you won’t have to send the version along with your login requests and such.
• AccountType is now returned in the login requests so you can now save a call to smugmug.accounts.getType
• Password is now a valid, optional, parameter for many of the smugmug.images calls so you can get details from galleries with passwords.
• The order of Albums not in SubCategories and those that are has been reversed in smugmug.users.getTree, to better mimic most filesystems.
• smugmug.albums.get with heavy no longer erroneously returns bogus SubCategories for albums without SubCategories.
• smugmug.users.getTree no longer returns albums inside of Categories in which they don’t belong.
• Fixed a bug with getting null SessionIDs. Still some lingering funkiness here, but it no longer breaks things.
• smugmug.users.getTree shows Private galleries if you’re the account owner.

On related notes, we now have a Wiki up, and you can get your own account so you can document your own API applications, including quirks and workarounds. Other cool things:

• SmugBug tracker
• SmugChat

So go participate and help keep me on my toes.